Self Respect In Night By Elie Wiesel

Self-Respect or Self-Destruction

Hope is an abstract belief that there is still a chance phenomenon that will occur in regards to a situation which one anticipates. Life is similar to this concept in which sudden occurrences happen that are completely out of any individual’s control. In Elie Wiesel’s Night, the narrator, Eliezer struggles as a victim and witness of the heinous atrocities of the Holocaust and facing the adversity where the lack of self-respect caused the people to conform to the injustices of the world and ultimately lose hope. Without Eliezer’s manifestation of hope, his fate would have been negatively altered. Nevertheless, conformity dehumanized the people and the will to survive no longer was a priority. Due to the atrocities

The Nazis have chosen to execute two young men. When one of them is about to die by hanging, he says, “Long live liberty! My curse on Germany! My curse!” (pg.69) this is an example of how self-respect formulates an individual’s response to injustice. Many were filled with distaste, as the God, they were so devoted to had abandoned them when they were victim to such torture. “What are You, my God? I thought angrily. How do You compare to the stricken mass gathered to affirm to You their faith, their anger, their defiance? What does Your grandeur mean, Master of the Universe, in the face of this cowardice, this decay, and this misery? Why do you do on troubling this poor people’s minds, their ailing bodies?” (pg.66). Many couldn’t tolerate the silence of God; this resulted in the lack of self-respect as most began to rebel against their religious upbringing. “I did not fast. First of all, to please my father who had forbidden me to do so…/there was no longer any reason for me to fast. I no longer accepted God’s silence…/I turned that act into a symbol of rebellion, or protest against Him.” (pg.68) “For the first time I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the Eternal, and terrible Master of the Universe, choose to be silent. What was there to thank him for?” (pg.33) It is apparent that Elie has changed from his former religious self who was dedicated to learning his religion and studying Kabbalah and Talmud everyday despite what his father said, however, it is unknown whether Elie completely abandoned his religion. We see indications of Elie questioning and doubting God, however, we also see his self-contradictory behaviour of returning to praise. “Some of the men spoke of God: His mysterious ways, the sins of the Jewish people, and their redemption to come. As for me, I had seized to pray…/I was